Car roof



Patented Mar. 17, 1936 CAR Charles David Bonsall,

ROOF4 Pittsburgh, Pa., assignor to P. H. Murphy Company, New Kensington,

Pa., a corporation of Application JuneA 28,

6 Claims.

This application is a continuationA in part of my copendingapplicationfor patent for Car roof, Serial No. 659,491, led March 3, 1933. Theinvention consists in the arrangements and combinations hereinafterdescribed and claimed.

In the accompanying drawing, which forms part of this specification, andwherein like symbols refer to like parts wherever they occur,

Fig. 1 is a plan view of a part of acar roof embodying my invention,

Fig. 2 is a sectional view crosswise of the car on the line 2-2 of Fig.1,

Fig. 3 is a sectional view lengthwise of the car on the line 3-3 of Fig.1, and

Figs. 4, 5, 6, '7, 8 and 9 are views similar to Fig. 3 Villustratingmodications.

The construction illustrated in Figs. l to 3 comprises metal side platesI, carlines 2'whose ends are secured to the side plates and roof sheetswhich extend fromsid-e plate to side plate and from carline to carline.The endsV of the roof sheets are preferably turned downand secured tothe outer faces of the carlines by welds 3. of added metal that join theend edges of the sheets to the outer faces of the side plates.

In the construction illustrated in Figs. 1 to 3, the carlines 2 are ofchannel shape with hori- Zontal anges 2a extending laterally from thetops thereof; and the roof sheets comprise a series of plain wide roofsheets 4 that span from carline to carline and a series ofplainnarrowroof sheets 5 that alternate with the wide sheets and arelocated above the respective carlines. The wide sheets 4 lap theiiang-es 2a. of the carlines what narrower than the distance betweensuccessive wide sheets and are arranged with their edges spaced somewhatfrom the -edges of the adjacent wide sheets. The spaces between theedges of the adjacent sheets are filled with welds 6 of added metalwhich secure the edges of adjacent sheets together and also to the topsof the carline anges.

The construction illustrated in Figs. 1 to 3 has several advantages. Ithas all of the advantages that come from welding as compared withriveting and it makes use of plain sheets which do not need to beaccurately sized as to width. For this reason, the invention isparticularly applicable to the reconstruction of roofs of the typewherein successive roof sheets meet or lap at the carlines. Roofs ofthis type usually fail by the tearing or rusting out of their edgeportions while the main body of the sheet is still in sound condition.By shearing off the defective marginal 2 and the intervening narrowsheets 5 are some- Pennsylvania 1935, Serial No. 28,818

portions of such sheets, they are still let wide enough for use as thewide sheetsof the construction above described. In the case of .n oldsheets that are too badly torn for use as wide sheets, they can besheared to produce one ormore of the narrow sheets of my construction.

Another advantage of the construction illustrated in Figs. 1 to 3 isthat the narrowroof sheet cooperates with the channel carline toconstitute a hollow box girder in which the narrow sheet functions asthe top plate. As this top plate is a separate piece from the wide roofsheet, it may be made of whatever thickness the designing engineer maythink advisable to meet the engineering requirements of the structure.In the modification illustrated in Fig. 4, the narrow sheet-.or topplate 5a of the hollow box girder is considerably thicker than the wideroof sheets 4;

The construction illustrated in Fig. 5 is generally similar to theconstruction of Figs. 1 to 3 exceptithat the modification illustrated'inFig. 5 uses the same Iianges and channel-shaped carline as-theconstruction of Fig. 3 and secures the edges of adjacent sheets 6togetherand to the carline. byv welds 'I that fill the spaces betweenadjacent sheets. In this modication, one oi' the Sheetsis wide enough toreach from one carline to the far ange of the-next adjacent carline,where its end is secured to the carline and to the adjacent sheet. Inthis construction, adjacent sheets may be of equal width or ofunequal'width. When theyV are of unequal width, a narrower sheetis-wideenough to overlap the edges of adjacent carlines far enough forconvenient welding. This arrangement of wide and narrow sheets isparticularly advantageous in that it makes it possible to salvage widesheets with torn edges by trimming olf the torn portions.

The modication illustrated in Fig. 6 is similar to the construction ofFig. 5 except that the sheets consist of two series alternating witheach other. The sheets of one series are plain thick sheets 8, that reston top of the carlines 2 and the sheets of the other series are thinsheets 9 whose body portions are at a lower level and which are providedwith upstanding angular ilanges 9a whose edges overlap the margins ofthe adjacent carlines and are welded thereto and to the edges of theadjacent sheets by single welds Il).

In the modifications illustrated in Figs. 7, 8 and 50 9, the carlines IIare of inverted U-shape. In the construction of Fig. '7, plain roofsheets I2 rest on the horizontal top portion of the carline with theiredges spaced apart and the spaces lled with welds I3 that secureadjacent sheets to- 55 gether and to the carline. Aside from the usualadvantages of welding over riveting, this arrangement makes it possibleto use old sheets with torn edges by trimming off the torn portions andstill leaving sheets that are wide enough for the purpose. It isparticularly noted that the location of the weld crosswise of thecarline may be shifted to suit the sheets, whereas the requirements forriveting fix the location of the rivet line within narrow limits.Besides, riveting requires one workman inside of the car as well asanother workman outside of the car, whereas a single Welder outside ofthe car will make a better joint.

In the modification illustrated in Fig. 8, the sides of adjacent sheetsI4 lap the anges Ila at the bottom of the intervening carline II and arerespectively welded by welds I5 to said flanges. The particular merit ofthis design is that it permits the use of narrow sheets and is,therefore, well adapted for salvaging old sheets with torn edges bytrimming oir the torn portions.

The modication illustrated in Fig. 9 comprises an invertedchannel-shaped carline II with lateral flanges IIa and plain roof sheetsI6 that extend underneath the carlines and have their meeting edgeswelded together as at II, underneath the carlines. Additional welds I8of added metal secure the edges of the carline flanges to the upperfaces of the roof sheets. In this modi-v fication, the roof sheetscooperate with the carlines to form hollow box girders that increase thestiifness and strength of the structure.

What I claim is:

`1. Acar roof construction comprising car side plates and a unitaryself-supporting roof secured thereto, said roo-f consisting ofalternately wide and narrow roof sheets arranged side by side withnarrow spaces intervening, channel-shaped members below and of greaterwidth than the narrow sheets and with lateral flanges extending beneaththe margins of the wider sheets and welds filling such spaces anduniting the edges of adjacent wide and narrow sheets together and tosaid members.

2. A car roof construction comprising vcar side plates and a unitaryself-supporting roof secured thereto, said roof consisting ofalternately wide and narrow roof sheets arranged side by side than thewide sheets and cooperating with the channel-shaped members as the topchord of the hollow box beam.

3. A car roof comprising side plates, carlines secured thereto, roofsheets supported directly and entirely by said side plates and carlinesand Whose ends are secured to the side plates and whose sides aresecured to the carlines, said carlines comprising a body portion withlateral flanges, said roof sheets having flat horizontal side marginswhich are spaced apart from each other and rest iiatwise on top of theflanges of the carlines to which they are secured, and welds of addedmetal uniting said sheets to said flanges, said welds being opposite theedges of the sheets and opposite the upper faces of the flanges of thecarlines united thereby.

4. A car roof comprising side plates, carlines secured thereto, roofsheets Whose ends are secured to the side plates and whose sides aresecured to the carlines, said carlines comprising a hollow body portionwith lateral flanges, said roof sheets being of less width than thedistance between the body portions of adjacent carlines and having athorizontal margins that rest on top of the flanges of adjacent carlines,and continuous welds of added metal located above said flanges anduniting said sheets to said flanges, said welds being opposite the edgesof the sheets and opposite the faces of the carlines united thereby.

5. A car roof comprising side plates, carlines secured thereto, roofsheets whose ends aresecured to said side plates and whose sides aresecured to the carlines, said carlines comprising a fiat horizontalmiddle portion and vertically disposed sides with lateral flanges, saidroof sheets being of less width than the distance between the sides ofadjacent carlines and having flat margins that rest atwise upon theflanges of adjacent carlines, and continuous welds of added metaluniting the edges of the sheets to the tops of said anges.

6. A car roof comprising side plates, carlines of inverted U-shape withflat tops and with outwardly extending anges at the bottom thereof, roofsheets extending from side plate to side plate with their ends securedto said side plates and with flat horizontal side margins resting on topof the flanges of adjacent carlines and spaced I from the vertical sideportions thereof and continuous welds of added metal uniting the edgesof the sheets to said fianges whereby the carlines cover the spacesbetween adjacent sheets.

CHARLES DAVID BONSALL.

